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I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.

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Wednesday, September 16, 2009

I’ve finally learned of all the wonders to be found in The Perfect Scoop. I had to get an ice cream maker first, and now that I have one, the three of us (ice cream maker, book, me) will be found together quite a lot. This book can teach you how to make all the classic ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet, and granita flavors, and it offers so much more. There are sauces and vessels for dressing up the frozen treats, and the tips and techniques are wonderfully useful. For instance, I didn’t realize I could prevent a mixture from instantly freezing to the sides of the canister by simply turning on the machine, let it start spinning, and then pour in the custard or puree. Then, the serving suggestions had my head spinning. I never would have thought of serving banana sorbet with espresso granita garnished with candied pineapple or chocolate granita crystals spooned over white chocolate ice cream or super lemon ice cream with fluffy marshmallow sauce to mimic a lemon meringue pie. One suggestion I will be trying very soon is butterscotch pecan ice cream scooped onto blondies and drizzled with lean chocolate sauce or possibly caramel sauce. With all of these great ideas, I would have had a very hard time deciding where to start if it weren’t for a great, big watermelon sitting on my kitchen counter. That made the watermelon sorbetto an easy choice.

Watermelon was pureed into juice. Some of the juice was warmed in a saucepan with sugar and a pinch of salt until the sugar dissolved. That mixture was combined with the rest of the watermelon juice and some lime juice. Vodka was optional, and I skipped it believe it or not. I quite like vodka with watermelon and lime, but I chose to keep the sorbetto alcohol-free. The watermelon juice mixture was chilled, and then it went into the ice cream maker after turning it on and letting it start spinning of course.

There was one special ingredient in this sorbetto. Rather than just freezing that watermelon juice mixture, a surprise in the form of mini chocolate chunks was stirred in at the end. The little chocolate pieces look like seeds, and they give the sorbetto bits of crunch and dark chocolate flavor. In the book, the sorbetto is shown frozen into popsicles. I don’t have a popsicle mold, yet, so I froze mine as individual servings in ramekins instead. Individual servings are almost as fun as a popsicles aren’t they? It often seems like frozen treats are just for summer, but there are ideas for all seasons throughout the book. I’m looking forward to creating all of these frozen treats for all kinds of occasions to come.

Lisa,Thank you so much for letting me know about the photos, I wasn't aware at all that you can not view them. Apparently I am the only one who can view them, my sister, my friend, and another blogger, they all said the can not view them either. Gosh, if you didn't tell me, I would never knew. I thank you so much!!!!!!!!! thank you.....elra